Speeches by Baldwin.

“Have you made representations?”

“You are all excellent advocates of the importance of this issue today. Can I ask all of you to make formal representations by letter to those three organisations about this important point?”

“You do not qualify for a banking hub if there is access to a cashpoint. Could you all please make that point in writing to the regulators?”

“There is increasing alienation from politics and the system. One of the conspiracy theories that seems to be in great currency is that any Government, irrespective of party, is determined to make us a cashless society. Do we need to challenge that conspiracy theory by enabling the use of cash or easier use of cash?”

“I wanted to probe Chris Brooks’s evidence a little more. In fact, you have all been really compelling about the types of people who will be excluded if they cannot use cash. Specifically on the age distinction that you shared with us just now, I can understand the situation with older people who have not necessarily be…”

“That is really interesting. Would you concur with that evidence?”

“Can you all please make these powerful representations?”

“Did you just say that it took action from the regulator for you to improve savings rates for consumers?”

“I want to move from the philosophical down to two specific examples. Mr Postings, on the consumer duty that was just raised, could you describe how your members have used that to implement this issue, on which the predecessor Committee pushed on quite hard when the Bank of England was raising rates? That is how much ba…”

“You are comparing apples with oranges there, aren’t you, because that is a different currency and a different interest rate?”

“Was that aligned with the consumer duty? Would you say that that was the consumer duty changing your behaviour, or it was specific action that the regulator took to make sure that our constituents got a better rate on their savings when the Bank of England was raising rates?”

“Have any of your members changed their behaviour as a result of consumer duty specifically?”

“With regard to savings rates? We are drilling down into that issue at the moment.”

“In the interests of time, I will move quickly on to another issue, which is the consultation that is under way jointly with the Treasury and the FCA on the advice/guidance boundary. One of the things that we have raised philosophically is the fact that consumers probably are not taking enough long-term risk in their lo…”

“Where do you want it to change to?”

“You favour it. Does anyone else have a different view?”

“Where do you want it to change to?”

“Where do your members want it to go to?”

“Does anyone have a different opinion on this subject? I am not seeing any of you catch my eye on it. I will go to Mr Wright. You mentioned bad winds earlier. Where are these bad winds coming from? Can you elaborate on what you see out there?”

“Parliament set out the consumer duty—that was the request from Parliament in terms of legislation. As consumer experts, can you point to some specific examples of where the implementation of consumer duty has made a difference and an improvement for consumers? Has anyone got any?”